What I’ve Learned Wednesday: Links from Real Food Blogland 9/7/11

One of the things I like most about being a Real Food-er is (virtually) meeting all the amazing people who make up this worldwide community of crunchy food fanatics. Many of them can be found blogging about their traditional-fooding lives, and most of them have been doing both of those things a lot longer than I have. Thankfully, they are around to teach me.

Whether about gardening or gadgets, farming or fermentation, pudding or politics, real food blogs are always buzzing with new things to learn, recipes to try, or interesting stories to read. So I thought it was time that I start sharing with my own readers what I discover from them.

Here’s what I’ve learned this week:

I don’t really need to be scared of raw ground beef. Since reading Nourishing Traditions, I was inspired to try raw meats beyond my standard sushi, but haven’t quite gotten there yet. So I was super inspired by this post on Yolks, Kefir, and Gristle where Megh gathers up the courage to down some raw hamburger. Yeah, the one meat we’re told to be the most afraid of in its uncooked form — is totally fine and healthy to eat when it’s real, grass-fed beef you’re dealing with. Paired with the right flavors, I think I might be willing to give this a try!

How to prepare and freeze zucchini for out-of-season use. This helpful guide from Traditional Foods teaches how to preserve a summer’s bounty of zucchini, and use it year-round! A video in this post even shows how to rescue an overgrown zucch otherwise destined for the compost heap. Plus — two tasty recipes!

Where to buy some of the best “superfoods” — the grocery store. Forget obscure, exotic fruits found only in the outermost corners of the earth. Jo from Jo’s Health Corner shows us the lesser-known superfoods that offer just as impressive health benefits, and are easily found at your neighborhood market.

How to stock a real food, holistically-minded medicine cabinet, or cupboard as it may be. This thorough list of must-haves and should-probably-gets, along with remedies and other tips and tricks from Recipes to Nourish is going to really come in handy for the upcoming cold season. Which, for us, is pretty much year-round since the weather doesn’t really change. Yeah THAT one was a big surprise for me when I first moved here — you can get colds?? When it’s not even cold?! WTH!

How to absolutely dominate a coconut. Jen at Real Food Freaks knows her way around these tropical treats like no one’s business. In this video post, watch her hammer them open, saddle up to a meat scraper, muscle out some milk, make toasted shreds, and even magically produce oil from her coconuts. Wow. We’ve always enjoyed having a plentiful supply of them here, but we’ve kind of just been butchering them with whatever knives or tools we could scrounge up in the kitchen, making a giant mess out of it, and end up wasting a lot of usable nut, I’m sure. Totally going to take these tips from the master next time we steal er, borrow a coconut from the neighbor’s tree!

I recently started using the super-amazing online meal planning program, Plan to Eat. It’s the perfect way to gather up all those awesome recipes from all the blogs we read, and actually get them on the table — instead of just drooling over them online! So now on WILW, I’d like to share which ones I’ve grabbed from all you bloggers out there, and added to my meal planning menu. If you’re a member of Plan to Eat, you can simply “friend” me on there, and add the recipes I’ve uploaded directly to your own recipe book and meal calendar! So easy.

Here’s what I added to my recipe book this week (link to their spot in my PTE recipe book is the first one, followed by their blog link):

Zucchini Kiku with Shrimp: I had no clue what the heck “kiku” was before finding this recipe from Real Food Freaks, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna love trying it out! If you’re not a shrimp person, you can sub in other meats to this cheesy, veggie casserole. Or I guess you could leave them out entirely, but that would make this a v-v-veg-(idontwannasayit)-itarian dish. If you’re into that. Buhh…

Herbed, Oranged, and Roasted Chicken: I love roasting up a whole chicken, but always end up kinda winging it (heh, heh) when it comes to seasoning and flavoring the thing. Stuff some things up it’s hiney, rub some garlic and salt under the skin, douse it all in butter… but I really like the sound of this recipe from A Mom on a Mission. All the ingredients sound just perfectly complimentary. Definitely trying this!

Chicken Vegetable Alfredo Soup: This is definitely a meal-worthy soup! Hearty and filled with two of my favorite things: chicken and butterfat. And, you know, some vegetables thrown in there too. Another yummy recipe from The Coconut Mama!

Grain-Free (or not) Apple Cinnamon Dutch Baby Pancake: Yeah. If you think recipe just sounds delicious, wait til you see the pictures from Nourishing Days. Be still, my heart. Dutch babies are probably my all-time favorite breakfast food, but these are just out-of-control amazing. And you can even make them grain-free-friendly! I don’t care how expensive apples are here, I’m making these. NOW.

Baked Kale Chips: What an easy, tasty, healthy snack from Recipes to Nourish! You pretty much just coat some kale with lots of butter, lemon juice, and salt, and bake! I can’t wait to eat these.

What have you learned lately from your favorite blogs? Any new recipes you plan on trying out?